i'm brooke baldwin live at cnn world headquarters. want to begin with some news you may have heard by now here. the leader of the catholic church, a billion people, folks, the pope, pope benedict xvi, he is resigning. let me say that again, resigning, because the last pope to resign was gregory xii in the year 1415. that's 70 plus years before columbus sailed to america. we're talking almost six centuries here. so this kind of thing, it is unusual to say the very least. the pope is citing health concerns. he is 85 years old. still, even high ranking catholics say they did not see this coming. >> not that long ago i was in rome and the holy father made no indication at all, not that he would have, this intention. >> i was very startled. i don't know what to say. i myself am waiting for information, for instruction. >> you hear the word, archbishop dolan said, startled by the news. wow. by the way, here, did you know that 74 million catholics live in our country? that's about a quarter of the u.s. population. only three other nations ha